I couldn’t resist it

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OK, I know that I haven’t even received my new Fimi drone yet and when I do get it, it’ll do everything I want it to. It’ll create excellent HD 4K video images and photographs, have great range and have plenty of flight time, especially with the extra battery that I’ve already received and am champing at the bit to actually use. But… sometimes an offer comes along that you just can’t refuse, and that’s just happened with the original Hubsan Zino, now called the Zino H117S.

It was a bit buggy when it was first launched a couple of years ago but since then its app and the firmware of both the quadcopter itself and its controller have been updated several times to the point that it is now an excellent machine that flies well and has all of the ‘special’ features that you need, like orbiting, tracking and waypoint mode flying.

Hubsan have now used the same platform with the updated software to launch the Zino 2 at a considerably higher price together with the Zino Pro that’s also more expensive, but apart from having greater range (the Zino H117S ‘only’ has a range of 1 km), the new versions offer little more for an ‘average’ user like myself. In fact, I considered the Zino Pro before opting for the slightly more expensive Fimi X8 SE 2020 that I’m waiting to receive in the coming days.

So what couldn’t I refuse? Well, the Zino H117S is still on Hubsan’s own web site for over 400€ and most retailers are still offering it, even on line, in the upper 300€’s. However, one or two are a bit more clued-up and have clearly decided that with the new versions now having been launched, it would be better to clear their stocks of the old one rather than be left with them months down the line and I found one offering the H117S for under 300€ complete with a second battery and free delivery. That’s cheaper than used models are being advertised for on Le Bon Coin!

That also puts it at around the same price as the Eachine EX4 that I returned to Banggood in China which only has 1080p video and has proven to be flaky and unreliable whereas in comparison the Hubsan is quite the opposite, having come out of a 2-year development process in the market place as a reliable step-up from being much more than just an entry-level machine.

So I’ll end up with two 4K machines – so what. There are loads of opportunities to get excellent drone footage just in this area alone and having the two will obviously provide me with more opportunities. And as the Hubsan will be less expensive, I’ll maybe prefer to use that in locations and conditions in which I’d prefer not to use the Fimi. Anyway, that’s for the future – and the deed is done 😉